Srinagar, Mar 31: Accusing the central government of using “undemocratic measures” against the people of J&K, Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti Sunday said that Government of India must stop this muscular policy and understand that dialogue is the only way forward.
Addressing workers conventions in Pattan and Sonawari, Mehbooba Mufti according to a party press release claimed that the agenda of the PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed brought relief to the people of the state after 2002 elections.
Prior to that, she said dialogue with Pakistan, reconciliatory approach and pitching for peace used to be considered as a taboo within the state and country’s political landscape.
“It was Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who initiated an era of reconciliation in Jammu and Kashmir and laid foundation of the ideology that declares that the state must become a bridge of friendship between India and Pakistan,” PDP president said.
The former chief minister said that the previous coalition of her party with the BJP was dictated by the numbers of the election results. Both the parties were at par and forming coalition was a “brave attempt to engage with the new India which is dominated by the Hindutva forces”.
Mehbooba said that the PDP “successfully resisted” for four long years the policies of the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir and that it has now become visible as to how the BJP is trying to divide the state, divide communities and undermine the vital institutions of the state.
“One could imagine at present what havoc would the BJP have created if it would have been left alone after the 2014 polls,” said PDP president.
She also expressed serious concern over the prevailing situation in the state and said that the “repressive measures and iron fist approach are being rigorously implemented with common masses threatened, intimated and harassed by the government at large”.
She reiterated PDP’s stand vis-a-vis banning the Jamaat-e- Islami, terming such a measure as “undemocratic, unconstitutional and an attempt to hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims all across.”
The PDP president added that her party will remain in the forefront to oppose any move aimed at harassing, suppressing and targeting the people of state and that the policies being adopted by the central leadership towards the state are turning the already crises-ridden region into a war zone.
Addressing the gatherings, senior PDP leader and former minister Dr. Mehboob Beg said that, when there was no presence of BJP in Jammu and Kashmir in 1996, Dr Farooq Abdullah with 60 MLAs “aligned unnecessarily with the BJP with a sole objective to secure a junior ministerial berth for his son (Omar Abdullah).”
He added that soon after Farooq Abdullah joined hands with the BJP, he gave away whatever was left of state’s economic prospects in the shape of power projects to the Centre.
He added that Farooq Abdullah “consolidated forces of official terror and patronized and promoted them while making BJP Halaal in Kashmir politics”.
